Delray Acted Secretly, Some Residents Say

DELRAY BEACH — Several residents accused city commissioners on Tuesday of secretly discussing the appointment of Patricia Archer to a vacant commission seat in violation of the state Sunshine Law.

Commissioners, however, flatly denied holding illegal, secret meetings with each other to discuss Archer's appointment, which became official Tuesday night on a 3-1 vote. Commissioner David Randolph was the lone dissenter.

Archer replaces Kevin Egan, who resigned his commission seat on Nov. 17 to take a job promotion in New England.

"It's just amazing to me that they could select someone without having any kind of discussion," resident Jim Mitchell said.

Under the Sunshine Law, commissioners are not allowed to discuss city business with each other in private, and they are required to talk to each other about public matters only at public meetings.

Mayor Jay Alperin said there were "no discussions anywhere" between commissioners outside the Nov. 17 meeting about Archer's appointment.

There, commissioners unofficially chose Archer on a 3-1 vote without discussing Archer's qualifications or those of the other seven applicants, including former Banyan Creek Elementary School principal Barbara Brown, who narrowly lost an election for the seat last year.

Commissioners said they chose Archer because she had privately approached them weeks before Egan resigned. They said Archer told them she wanted to run for office in March.

Archer said she spoke to several commissioners about her interest in a commission seat, but those private discussions took place before she officially became a commissioner on Tuesday.

"Generally, I tend to have a great deal of respect for the commission," said Josh Smith Jr., leader of the 65-member Black Citizens Coalition, which recently fought what the group perceives as racial bias in the city's code enforcement of unpaved alleys in the black community.

"But considering the slick manner in which the vacated commission seat was handled, combined with recent allegations of racial bias, many minorities feel that one or more individuals on the commission] are not capable of aligning themselves with anything that is just and right for black citizens," he said.

Brown is black; Archer is white.

Several of Brown's supporters have said that if prior interest was the criterion for selection, Brown should have been appointed because she almost won the seat last year against Commissioner David Schmidt, who is also up for re-election next year.

Schmidt and Brown have formally announced bids to run for office in March 1999, but this time for different seats. Schmidt will run for re-election to his own seat, while Brown will run for the seat now held by Commissioner Ken Ellingsworth, who has reached his term limit.

In other business, commissioners tabled an ordinance that would double the fees developers pay in lieu of actual downtown parking spaces from $6,000 to $12,000.

The ordinance will resurface on Jan. 19. But in the meantime, all developers will be held to the new rules -- once they go into effect.